Don't Tell My Brother

Chapter 23 - Norweigan Horror Films and New Coworkers

Alex was still seething with rage when she met Lucas outside after his shift. Damien had taken off as soon as possible, leaving Lucas to wipe down the benches and clean up, so Lucas wasn't in the greatest mood either. As soon as he stepped out onto the pavement, she wrapped him in a tight hug.

After he regained the breath she'd knocked out of him, Lucas managed to murmur a "Thanks, Alex," against the top of her head. He didn't know how long she'd been waiting for him, but it meant the world that she had. After squeezing him as tightly as she possibly could, as if she could squeeze all the sadness out of him, Alex stepped back, hands on her hips.

"Fuck Damien Castillo."

As they walked home under the twilight sky, Lucas listened as Alex raged against the injustice she thought he'd suffered.

"What a total piece of shit! So he'll get all flirty until he's in front of his friends, and then he just treats you like shit? Unbelievable."

Lucas' eyes were fixed on the pavement. "I think you were wrong about the flirting thing. It's pretty obvious he's not interested."

"Impossible. I'm never wrong. He called you Lukie," Lucas winced at the nickname, "and he was all over you. Does he normally act like that around you?"

"Well...yes, I guess. But it's a joke. It's to make fun of me, because it makes me so..." Flustered. He couldn't believe he'd let Damien Castillo make him flustered.

"Ah, yes. The common heterosexual male joke where you tell your friend he's cute and hit on him all the time." Alex said, deadpan, eyebrow raised. She clearly wasn't buying it.

"We weren't friends." The fact that he'd even thought that, however briefly, was embarrassingly stupid.

"Definitely not. He doesn't deserve to be your friend. You're way too cool for him." Alex pulled him into a sideways hug as they walked. "Fuck him. You're too smart and cool to bother with a guy like that. Trust me, when you get to college guys will be all over you."

Lucas laughed. Alex's over-the-top pronouncements were actually making him feel a little better. "I don't think that's how it's going to be."

"It will. You'll be like Hugh Heffner, but not a creep and with men instead of women. And you probably won't have the mansion." Alex paused. "Okay, maybe that was a bad comparison. But you get the point. He's not good enough for your friendship, and he sure as hell isn't good enough for anything more. Got it?"

She looked quite fierce in that moment, hands on her hips, and judging by her stern glare if he disagreed, she'd be very cross.

"Got it."

Alex nodded approvingly. By then they were just outside his front gate, almost exactly the same position he and Damien had stood only last night. Last night, when he'd been so stupidly happy, even though now it was clear Damien had just used him for an essay. He couldn't believe he'd been such an idiot.

"Okay, so I'm thinking we have a movie night this weekend." Alex said, still looking at him with concern, as if he might cry at any moment.

Which he wouldn't, Lucas assured himself. Damien wasn't worth his tears. He adjusted his glasses, and tried to keep focusing on what Alex was saying.

"-there's this new horror movie I saw on Netflix, about some kids who move into an abandoned house or something. That might be good?"

"Abandoned house? So cliché." He dismissed it with a flick of his wrist, and Alex rolled her eyes.

"Fine, fine. Wasn't there some Norwegian one you saw a good review about?"

Lucas brightened a little. "There was."